In that paper, the data now stretched back far enough in time for the authors to demonstrate something of great importance. They showed that changes in ice volume recorded by isotopes in deep ocean cores (see Seventeen – Proxies under Water I) had significant signals at the frequencies of obliquity, precession and one of the frequencies of eccentricity.

Obliquity is the changes in the tilt of the earth’s axis, on a period around 40 kyrs. Precession is the change in the closest approach to the sun through the year (right now the closest approach is in NH winter), on a period around 20 kyrs (see Four – Understanding Orbits, Seasons and Stuff).

Both of these involve significant redistributions of solar energy. Obliquity changes the amount of solar insolation received by the poles versus the tropics. Precession changes the amount of solar insolation at high latitudes in summer versus winter. (Neither changes total solar insolation). This was nicely in line with Milankovitch’s theory – for a recap see Part Three.

I’m going to call this part Theory A, and paraphrase it like this:

The waxing and waning of the ice sheets has 40 kyr and 20 kyr periods which is caused by the changing distribution of solar insolation due to obliquity and precession.

The largest signal in ocean cores over the last 800 kyrs has a component of about 100 kyrs (with some variability). That is, the ice ages start and end with a period of about 100 kyrs. Eccentricity varies on time periods of 100 kyrs and 400 kyrs, but with a very small change in total insolation (see Part Four).

Hays et al produced a completely separate theory, which I’m going to call Theory B, and paraphrase it like this:

The start and end of the ice ages has 100 kyr periods which is caused by the changing eccentricity of the earth’s orbit.

Theory A and Theory B are both in the same paper and are both theories that “link ice ages to orbital changes”. In their paper they demonstrated Theory A but did not prove or demonstrate Theory B. Unfortunately, Theory B is the much more important one.

Here is what they said:

The dominant 100,000 year climatic component has an average period close to, and is in phase with, orbital eccentricity. Unlike the correlations between climate and the higher frequency orbital variations (which can be explained on the assumption that the climate system responds linearly to orbital forcing) an explanation of the correlations between climate and eccentricity probably requires an assumption of non-linearity.

[Emphasis added].

The only quibble I have with the above paragraph is the word “probably”. This word should have been removed. There is no doubt. An assumption of non-linearity is required as a minimum.

Now why does it “probably” or “definitely” require an assumption of non-linearity? And what does that mean?

A linearity assumption is one where the output is proportional to the input. For example: double the weight of a vehicle and the acceleration halves. Most things in the real world, and most things in climate are non-linear. So for example, double the temperature (absolute temperature) and the emitted radiation goes up by a factor of 16.

However, there isn’t a principle, an energy balance equation or even a climate model that can take this tiny change in incoming solar insolation over a 100 kyr period and cause the end of an ice age.

In fact, their statement wasn’t so much “an assumption of non-linearity” but “some non-linearity relationship that we are not currently able to model or demonstrate, some non-linearity relationship we have yet to discover”.

There is nothing wrong with their original statement as such (apart from “probably”), but an alternative way of writing from the available evidence could be:

The dominant 100,000 year climatic component has an average period close to, and is in phase with, orbital eccentricity. Unlike the correlations between climate and the higher frequency orbital variations.. an explanation of the correlations between climate and eccentricity is as yet unknown, remains to be demonstrated and there may in fact be no relationship at all.

Unfortunately, because Theory A and Theory B were in the same paper and because Theory A is well demonstrated and because there is no accepted alternative on the cause of the start and end of ice ages (there are alternative hypotheses around natural resonance) Theory B has become “well accepted”.

And because everyone familiar with climate science knows that Theory A is almost certainly true, when you point out that Theory B doesn’t have any evidence, many people are confused and wonder why you are rejecting well-proven theories.

In the series so far, except in occasional comments, I haven’t properly explained the separation between the two theories and this article is an attempt to clear that up.

Now I will produce a sufficient quantity of papers and quote their “summary of the situation so far” to demonstrate that there isn’t any support for Theory B. The only support is the fact that one component frequency of eccentricity is “similar” to the frequency of the ice age terminations/inceptions, plus the safety in numbers support of everyone else believing it.

One other comment on paleoclimate papers attempts to explain the 100 kyr period. It is the norm for published papers to introduce a new hypothesis. That doesn’t make the new hypothesis correct.

So if I produce a paper, and quote the author’s summary of “the state of work up to now” and that paper then introduces their new hypothesis which claims to perhaps solve the mystery, I haven’t quoted the author’s summary out of context.

Let’s take it as read that lots of climate scientists think they have come up with something new. What we are interesting in is their review of the current state of the field and their evidence cited in support of Theory B.

Before producing the papers I also want to explain why I think the idea behind Theory B is so obviously flawed, and not just because 38 years after Hays, Imbrie & Shackleton the mechanism is still a mystery.

Why Theory B is Unsupportable

If a non-linear relationship can be established between a 0.1% change in insolation over a long period, it must also explain why significant temperature fluctuations in high latitude regions during glacials do not cause a termination.

Here are two high resolution examples from a Greenland ice core (NGRIP) during the last glaciation:

From Wolff et al 2010

The “non-linearity” hypothesis has more than one hill to climb. This second challenge is even more difficult than the first.

A tiny change in total insolation causes, via a yet to be determined non-linear effect, the end of each ice age, but this same effect does not amplify frequent large temperature changes of long duration to end an ice age (note 1).

Food for thought.

Theory C Family

Many papers which propose orbital reasons for ice age terminations do not propose eccentricity variations as the cause. Instead, they attribute terminations to specific insolation changes at specific latitudes, or various combinations of orbital factors completely unrelated to eccentricity variations. See Part Six – “Hypotheses Abound”.

Of course, one of these might be right. For now I will call them the family, so we remember that Theory C is not one theory, but a whole range of mostly incompatible theories.

But remember where the orbital hypothesis for ice age termination came from – the 100,000 year period of eccentricity variation “matching” (kind of matching) the 100,000 year period of the ice ages.

The Theory C Family does not have that starting point.

Papers

So let’s move onto papers. I started by picking off papers from the right category in my mind map that might have something to say, then I opened up every one of about 300 papers in my ice ages folder (alphabetical by author) and checked to see whether they had something to say on the cause of ice ages in the abstract or introduction. Most papers don’t have a comment because they are about details like d18O proxies, or the CO2 concentration in the Vostok ice core, etc. That’s why there aren’t 300 citations here.

And bold text within a citation is added by me for emphasis.

I looked for their citations (evidence) to back up any claim that orbital variations caused ice age terminations. In some cases I pull up what the citations said.

—–

Last Interglacial Climates, Kukla et al (2002), by a cast of many including the famous Wallace S. Broecker, John Imbrie and Nicholas J. Shackleton:

At the end of the last interglacial period, over 100,000 yr ago, the Earth’s environments, similar to those of today, switched into a profoundly colder glacial mode. Glaciers grew, sea level dropped, and deserts expanded. The same transition occurred many times earlier, linked to periodic shifts of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The mechanism of this change, the most important puzzle of climatology, remains unsolved.

Note that “linked to periodic shifts of the Earth’s orbit” is followed by an “unknown mechanism”. Two of the authors were the coauthors of the classic 1976 paper that is most commonly cited as evidence for Theory B.

The most significant climate variability in the Quaternary record is the alternation between glacial and interglacial, occurring at approximately 100 ka periodicity in the most recent 800 ka. This signal is of global scale, and observed in all climate records, including the long Antarctic ice cores (Jouzel et al., 2007a) and marine sediments (Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005). There is a strong consensus that the underlying cause of these changes is orbital (i.e. due to external forcing from changes in the seasonal and latitudinal pattern of insolation), but amplified by a whole range of internal factors (such as changes in greenhouse gas concentration and in ice extent).

Note the lack of citation for the underlying causes being orbital. However, as we will see, there is “strong consensus”. In this specific paper from the words used I believe the authors are supporting the Theory C Family, not Theory B.

It is generally accepted that the timing of glacials is linked to variations in solar insolation that result from the Earth’s orbit around the sun (Hays et al. 1976; Huybers and Wunsch 2005). These solar radiative anomalies must have been amplified by feedback processes within the climate system, including changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations (Archer et al. 2000) and ice-sheet growth (Clark et al. 1999), and whilst hypotheses abound as to the details of these feedbacks, none is without its detractors and we cannot yet claim to know how the Earth system produced the climate we see recorded in numerous proxy records.

I think I will classify this one as “Still a mystery”.

Note that support for “linkage to variations in solar insolation” consists of Hays et al 1976 – Theory B – and Huybers and Wunsch 2005 who propose a contradictory theory (obliquity) – Theory C Family. In this case they absolve themselves by pointing out that all the theories have flaws.

———

The timing of major climate terminations, ME Raymo (1997)

For the past 20 years, the Milankovitch hypothesis, which holds that the Earth’s climate is controlled by variations in incoming solar radiation tied to subtle yet predictable changes in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun [Hays et al., 1976], has been widely accepted by the scientific community. However, the degree to which and the mechanisms by which insolation variations control regional and global climate are poorly understood. In particular, the “100-kyr” climate cycle, the dominant feature of nearly all climate records of the last 900,000 years, has always posed a problem to the Milankovitch hypothesis..

..time interval between terminations is not constant; it varies from 84 kyr between Terminations IV and V to 120 kyr between Terminations III and II.

“Still a mystery”. (Maureen Raymo has written many papers on ice ages, is the coauthor of the LR04 ocean core database and cannot be considered an outlier). Her paper claims she solves the problem:

In conclusion, it is proposed that the interaction between obliquity and the eccentricity-modulation of precession as it controls northern hemisphere summer radiation is responsible for the pattern of ice volume growth and decay observed in the late Quaternary.

Solution was unknown, but new proposed solution is from the Theory C Family.

Glaciation (deglaciation) is one of the most extreme and fundamental climatic events in Earth’s history.. As a result, fluctuations in orbital forcing (e.g. Berger 1978; Berger and Loutre 1991) have been widely recognised as the primary triggers responsible for the glacial-interglacial cycles (Berger 1988; Bradley 1999; Broecker and Denton 1990; Crowley and North 1991; Imbrie and Imbrie 1979). At the same time, these studies revealed the complexity of the climate system, and produced several paradoxes which cannot be explained by a simple linear response of the climate system to orbital forcing.

At this point I was interested to find out how well these 4 papers cited (Berger 1988; Bradley 1999; Broecker and Denton 1990; Crowley and North 1991; Imbrie and Imbrie 1979) backed up the evidence for orbital forcing being the primary triggers for glacial cycles.

Broecker & Denton (1990) is in Scientific American which I don’t think counts as a peer-reviewed journal (even though a long time ago I subscribed to it and thought it was a great magazine). I was able to find the abstract only, which coincides with their peer-reviewed paper The Role of Ocean-Atmosphere Reorganization in Glacial Cycles the same year in Quaternary Science Reviews, so I’ll assume they are media hounds promoting their peer-reviewed paper for a wider audience and look at the peer-reviewed paper. After commenting on the problems:

Such a linkage cannot explain synchronous climate changes of similar severity in both polar hemispheres. Also, it cannot account for the rapidity of the transition from full glacial toward full interglacial conditions. If glacial climates are driven by changes in seasonality, then another linkage must exist.

they state:

We propose that Quaternary glacial cycles were dominated by abrupt reorganizations of the ocean- atmosphere system driven by orbitally induced changes in fresh water transports which impact salt structure in the sea. These reorganizations mark switches between stable modes of operation of the ocean-atmosphere system. Although we think that glacial cycles were driven by orbital change, we see no basis for rejecting the possibility that the mode changes are part of a self- sustained internal oscillation that would operate even in the absence of changes in the Earth’s orbital parameters. If so, as pointed out by Saltzman et al. (1984), orbital cycles can merely modulate and pace a self-oscillating climate system.

So this paper is evidence for Theory B or Theory C Family? “..we think that..” “..we see no basis for rejecting the possibility ..self-sustained internal oscillation”. This is evidence for the astronomical theory?

I can’t access Milankovitch theory and climate, Berger 1988 (thanks, Reviews of Geophysics!). If someone has it, please email it to me at scienceofdoom – you know what goes here – gmail.com. The other two references are books, so I can’t access them. Crowley & North 1991 is Paleoclimatology. Vol 16 of Oxford Monograph on Geology and Geophysics, OUP. Imbrie & Imbrie 1979 is Ice Ages: solving the mystery.

However, the reason for the spacing and timing of interglacials, and the sequence of events at major warmings, remains obscure.

“Still a mystery”. This is a little different from Wolff’s comment in the paper above. Elsewhere (see his comments cited in Eleven – End of the Last Ice age) he has stated that ice age terminations are not understood:

Between about 19,000 and 10,000 years ago, Earth emerged from the last glacial period. The whole globe warmed, ice sheets retreated from Northern Hemisphere continents and atmospheric composition changed significantly. Many theories try to explain what triggered and sustained this transformation (known as the glacial termination), but crucial evidence to validate them is lacking.

A major puzzle of paleoclimatology is why, after a long interval of cooling climate, each late Quaternary ice age ended with a relatively short warming leg called a termination. We here offer a comprehensive hypothesis of how Earth emerged from the last global ice age..

Understanding the causes of the Pleistocene ice ages has been a significant question in climate dynamics since they were discovered in the mid-nineteenth century. The identification of orbital frequencies in the marine 18O/16O record, a proxy for global ice volume, in the 1970s demonstrated that glacial cycles are ultimately paced by astronomical forcing.

The citation is Hays, Imbrie & Shackleton 1976. Theory B with no support.

According to the Milankovitch theory, changes in summer insolation in the high-latitude Northern Hemisphere caused glacial cycles through their impact on ice-sheet mass balance. Statistical analyses of long climate records supported this theory, but they also posed a substantial challenge by showing that changes in Southern Hemisphere climate were in phase with or led those in the north.

The citation is Hays, Imbrie & Shackleton 1976. (Many of the same authors in this and the paper above).

The climate of the last 500,000 years (500 kyr) was characterized by extremely strong 100-kyr cyclicity, as seen particularly in ice-core and marine-sediment records. During the earlier part of the Quaternary (before 1 million years ago; 1 Myr BP), cycles of 41 kyr dominated. The period in between shows intermediate behaviour, with marine records showing both frequencies and a lower amplitude of the climate signal. However, the reasons for the dominance of the 100-kyr (eccentricity) over the 41-kyr (obliquity) band in the later part of the record, and the amplifiers that allow small changes in radiation to cause large changes in global climate, are not well understood.

To explain why the ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere grew to the size and extent that has been observed, and why they retreated quickly at the termination of each 100 kyr cycle is still a challenge (Tarasov and Peltier, 1997a; Berger et al., 1998; Paillard, 1998; Paillard and Parrenin, 2004). Although it is now broadly accepted that the orbital variations of the Earth influence climate changes (Milankovitch, 1930; Hays et al., 1976; Berger, 1978), the large amplitude of the ice volume changes and the geographical extent need to be reproduced by comprehensive models which include nonlinear mechanisms of ice sheet dynamics (Raymo, 1997; Tarasov and Peltier, 1997b; Paillard, 2001; Raymo et al., 2006).

The papers cited for this broad agreement are Hays et al 1976 once again. And Berger 1978 who says:

It is not the aim of this paper to draw definitive conclusions about the astronomical theory of paleoclimates but simply to provide geologists with accurate theoretical values of the earth’s orbital elements and insolation..

Berger does go on to comment on eccentricity:

Berger 1978

And this is simply again noting that the period for eccentricity is “similar” to the period for the ice age terminations.

Milankovitch theory proposes that summer insolation at high northern latitudes drives the glacial cycles, and statistical tests have demonstrated that the glacial cycles are indeed linked to eccentricity, obliquity and precession cycles. Yet insolation alone cannot explain the strong 100,000-year cycle, suggesting that internal climatic feedbacks may also be at work. Earlier conceptual models, for example, showed that glacial terminations are associated with the build-up of Northern Hemisphere ‘excess ice’, but the physical mechanisms underpinning the 100,000-year cycle remain unclear.

The citations for the statistical tests are Lisiecki 2010 and Huybers 2011.

Huybers 2011 claims that obliquity and precession (not eccentricity) are linked to deglaciations. This is development of his earlier, very interesting 2007 hypothesis (Glacial variability over the last two million years: an extended depth-derived agemodel, continuous obliquity pacing, and the Pleistocene progression – to which we will return) that obliquity is the prime factor (not necessarily the cause) in deglaciations.

The cause of these massive shifts in climate remains unclear not for lack of models, of which there are now over thirty, but for want of means to choose among them. Previous statistical tests have demonstrated that obliquity paces the 100-kyr glacial cycles [citations are his 2005 paper with Carl Wunsch and his 2007 paper], helping narrow the list of viable mechanisms, but have been inconclusive with respect to precession (that is, P > 0.05) because of small sample sizes and uncertain timing..

Variations in the eccentricity (100,000 yr), obliquity (41,000 yr) and precession (23,000 yr) of Earth’s orbit have been linked to glacial–interglacial climate cycles. It is generally thought that the 100,000-yr glacial cycles of the past 800,000 yr are a result of orbital eccentricity [1–4] . However, the eccentricity cycle produces negligible 100-kyr power in seasonal or mean annual insolation, although it does modulate the amplitude of the precession cycle.

Alternatively, it has been suggested that the recent glacial cycles are driven purely by the obliquity cycle [5–7]. Here I use statistical analyses of insolation and the climate of the past five million years to characterize the link between eccentricity and the 100,000-yr glacial cycles. Using cross-wavelet phase analysis, I show that the relative phase of eccentricity and glacial cycles has been stable since 1.2 Myr ago, supporting the hypothesis that 100,000-yr glacial cycles are paced [8–10] by eccentricity [4,11]. However, I find that the time-dependent 100,000-yr power of eccentricity has been anticorrelated with that of climate since 5 Myr ago, with strong eccentricity forcing associated with weaker power in the 100,000-yr glacial cycle.

I propose that the anticorrelation arises from the strong precession forcing associated with strong eccentricity forcing, which disrupts the internal climate feedbacks that drive the 100,000-yr glacial cycle. This supports the hypothesis that internally driven climate feedbacks are the source of the 100,000-yr climate variations.

So she accepts that Theory B is generally accepted, although some Theory C Family advocates are out there, but provides a new hybrid solution of her own.

References for the orbital eccentricity hypothesis [1-4] include Hays et al 1976 and Raymo 1997 cited above. However, Raymo didn’t think it had been demonstrated prior to her 1997 paper and in her 1997 paper introduces the hypothesis that is primarily ice sheet size, obliquity and precession modulated by eccentricity.

References for the obliquity hypothesis [5-7] include the Huybers & Wunsch 2005 and Huybers 2007 covered just before this reference.

So in summary – going back to how we dragged up these references – Abe-Ouchi and co-authors provide two citations in support of the statistical link between orbital variations and deglaciation. One citation claims primarily obliquity with maybe a place for precession – no link to eccentricity. Another citation claims a new theory for eccentricity as a phase-locking mechanism to an internal climate process.

These are two mutually exclusive ideas. But at least both papers attempted to prove their (exclusive) ideas.

Since the paper by Hays et al. (1976), spectral analyses of climate proxy records provide substantial evidence that a fraction of the climatic variance is driven by insolation changes in the frequency ranges of obliquity and precession variations. However, it is the variance components centered near 100 kyr which dominate most Upper Pleistocene climatic records, although the amount of insolation perturbation at the eccentricity driven periods close to 100-kyr (mainly the 95 kyr- and 123 kyr-periods) is much too small to cause directly a climate change of ice-age amplitude. Many attempts to find an explanation to this 100-kyr cycle in climatic records have been made over the last decades.

In spite of considerable progress in studies of past climate changes, the nature of vigorous climate variations observed during the past several million years remains elusive. A variety of different astronomical theories, among which the Milankovitch theory [Milankovitch, 1941] is the best known, suggest changes in Earth’s orbital parameters as a driver or, at least, a pacemaker of glacial-interglacial climate transitions. However, the mechanisms which translate seasonal and strongly latitude-dependent variations in the insolation into the global-scale climate shifts between glacial and interglacial climate states are the subject of debate.

The ice-age cycles have been linked to changes in Earth’s orbital geometry (the Milankovitch or Astronomical theory) through spectral analysis of marine oxygen-isotope records (3), which demonstrate power in the ice-age record at the same three spectral periods as orbitally driven changes in insolation. However, explaining the 100 thousand- year (ky)–recurrence period of ice ages has proved to be problematic because although the 100-ky cycle dominates the ice-volume power spectrum, it is small in the insolation spectrum. In order to understand what factors control ice age cycles, we must know the extent to which terminations are systematically linked to insolation and how any such linkage can produce a non- linear response by the climate system at the end of ice ages.

“Still a mystery”. This paper claims (their new work) that terminations are all about high latitude NH insolation. They state, for the hypothesis of the paper:

In all four cases, observations are consistent with a classic Northern Hemisphere summer insolation intensity trigger for an initial retreat of northern ice sheets.

This is similar to Northern Hemisphere forcing of climatic cycles in Antarctica over the past 360,000 years, Kawamura et al (2007) – not cited here because they didn’t make a statement about “the problem so far”.

During the Late Pleistocene, the period of glacial-to-interglacial transitions (or terminations) has increased relative to the Early Pleistocene [~100 thousand years (ky) versus 40 ky]. A coherent explanation for this shift still eludes paleoclimatologists (3). Although many different models have been proposed (4), the most widely accepted one invokes changes in the intensity of high-latitude Northern Hemisphere summer insolation (NHSI). These changes are driven largely by the precession of the equinoxes (5), which produces relatively large seasonal and hemispheric insolation intensity anomalies as the month of perihelion shifts through its ~23-ky cycle.

Their “widely accepted” theory is from the Theory C Family. This is a different theory from the “widely accepted” theory B. Perhaps both are “widely accepted”, hopefully by different groups of scientists.

The origin of the 100 kyr cyclicity, which dominates ice volume variations and other climate records over the past million years, remains debatable..

..One of the major challenges to the classical Milankovitch theory is the presence of 100 kyr cycles that dominate global ice volume and climate variability over the past million years (Hays et al., 1976; Imbrie et al., 1993; Paillard, 2001).

This periodicity is practically absent in the principal “Milankovitch forcing” – variations of summer insolation at high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (NH).

The eccentricity of Earth’s orbit does contain periodicities close to 100 kyr and the robust phase relationship between glacial cycles and 100-kyr eccentricity cycles has been found in the paleoclimate records (Hays et al., 1976; Berger et al., 2005; Lisiecki, 2010). However, the direct effect of the eccentricity on Earth’s global energy balance is very small.

Moreover, eccentricity variations are dominated by a 400 kyr cycle which is also seen in some older geological records (e.g. Zachos et al., 1997), but is practically absent in the frequency spectrum of the ice volume variations for the last million years.

In view of this long-standing problem, it was proposed that the 100 kyr cycles do not originate directly from the orbital forcing but rather represent internal oscillations in the climate-cryosphere (Gildor and Tziperman, 2001) or climate-cryosphere-carbonosphere system (e.g. Saltzman and Maasch, 1988; Paillard and Parrenin, 2004), which can be synchronized (phase locked) to the orbital forcing (Tziperman et al., 2006).

Alternatively, it was proposed that the 100 kyr cycles result from the terminations of ice sheet buildup by each second or third obliquity cycle (Huybers and Wunsch, 2005) or each fourth or fifth precessional cycle (Ridgwell et al., 1999) or they originate directly from a strong, nonlinear, climate-cryosphere system response to a combination of precessional and obliquity components of the orbital forcing (Paillard, 1998).

This is not to say that all important questions have been answered. In fact, one purpose of this article is to contribute to the solution of one of the remaining major problems: the origin and history of the 100,000-year climatic cycle.

At least over the past 600,000 years, almost all climatic records are dominated by variance components in a narrow frequency band centered near a 100,000-year cycle (5-8, 12, 21, 38). Yet a climatic response at these frequencies is not predicted by the Milankovitch version of the astronomical theory – or any other version that involves a linear response (5, 6).

This paper was worth citing because the first author is the coathor of Hays et al 1976. For interest let’s look at what they attempt to demonstrate in their paper. They take the approach of producing different (simple) models with orbital forcing, to try to reproduce the geological record:

The goal of our modeling effort has been to simulate the climatic response to orbital variations over the past 500 kyrs. The resulting model fails to simulate four important aspects of this record. It fails to produce sufficient 100k power; it produces too much 23K and 19K power; it produces too much 413k power and it loses its match with the record ardoun the time of the last 413k eccentricity minimum..

All of these failures are related to a fundamental shortcoming in the generation of 100k power.. Indeed it is possible that no function will yield a good simulation of the entire 500 kyr record under consideration here, because nonorbitally forced high-frequency fluctuations may have caused the system to flip or flop in an unpredictable fashion. This would be an example of Lorenz’s concept of an almost intransitive system..

..Progress in this direction will indicate what long-term variations need to be explained within the framework of a stochastic model and provide a basis for estimating the degree of unpredictability in climate.

It is now widely believed that these astronomical influences, through their control of the seasonal and latitudinal distribution of incident solar radiation, either drive the major climate cycles externally or set the phase of oscillations that are driven internally..

..In this paper we concentrate on the 23-kyr and 41- kyr cycles of glaciation. These prove to be so strongly correlated with large changes in seasonal radiation that we regard them as continuous, essentially linear responses to the Milankovitch forcing. In a subsequent paper we will remove these linearly forced components from each time series and examine the residual response. The residual response is dominated by a 100-kyr cycle, which has twice the amplitude of the 23- and 41-kyr cycles combined. In the band of periods near 100 kyr, variations in radiation correlated with climate are so small, compared with variations correlated with the two shorter climatic cycles, that the strength of the 100-kyr climate cycle must result from the channeling of energy into this band by mechanisms operating within the climate system itself.

In Part 2, Imbrie et al (same authors) 1993 they highlight in more detail the problem of explaining the 100 kyr period:

1. One difficulty in finding a simple Milankovitch explanation is that the amplitudes of all 100-kyr radiation signals are very small [Hays et al., 1976]. As an example, the amplitude of the 100-kyr radiation cycle at June 65N (a signal often used as a forcing in Milankovitch theories) is only 2W/m² (Figure 1). This is 1 order of magnitude smaller than the same insolation signal in the 23- and 41- kyr bands, yet the system’s response in these two bands combined has about half the amplitude observed at 100 kyr.

2. Another fundamental difficulty is that variations in eccentricity are not confined to periods near 100 kyr. In fact, during the late Pleistocene, eccentricity variations at periods near 100 kyr are of the same order of magnitude as those at 413 kyr.. yet the d18O record for this time interval has no corresponding spectral peak near 400 kyr..

3. The high coherency observed between 100 kyr eccentricity and d18O signals is an average that hides significant mismatches, notably about 400 kyrs ago.

Their proposed solution:

In our model, the coupled system acts as a nonlinear amplifier that is particularly sensitive to eccentricity-driven modulations in the 23,000-year sea level cycle. During an interval when sea level is forced upward from a major low stand by a Milankovitch response acting either alone or in combination with an internally driven, higher-frequency process, ice sheets grounded on continental shelves become unstable, mass wasting accelerates, and the resulting deglaciation sets the phase of one wave in the train of 100 kyr oscillations.

The growth and decay of terrestrial ice sheets during the Quaternary ultimately result from the effects of changes in Earth’s orbital geometry on climate system processes. This link is convincingly established by Hays et al. (1976) who find a correlation between variations of terrestrial ice volume and variations in Earth’s orbital eccentricity, obliquity, and longitude of the perihelion.

We can conclude that the standard Milankovitch insolation theory does not account for the terminations of the ice ages. That is a serious and disturbing conclusion by itself. We can conclude that models that attribute the terminations to large insolation peaks (or, equivalently, to peaks in the precession parameter), such as the recent one by Raymo (23), are incompatible with the observations.

Through the spectral analyses of marine oxygen isotope (d18O) records it has been shown that ice-sheets respond both linearly and non-linearly to astronomical forcing.

References in support of this statement include Imbrie et al 1992 & Imbrie et al 1993 that we reviewed above, and Pacemaking the Ice Ages by Frequency Modulation of Earth’s Orbital Eccentricity, JA Rial (1999):

The theory finds support in the fact that the spectra of the d18O records contain some of the same frequencies as the astronomical variations (2– 4), but a satisfactory explanation of how the changes in orbital eccentricity are transformed into the 100-ky quasi-periodic fluctuations in global ice volume indicated by the data has not yet been found (5).

For interest, the claim for the new work in this paper:

Evidence from power spectra of deep-sea oxygen isotope time series suggests that the climate system of Earth responds nonlinearly to astronomical forcing by frequency modulating eccentricity-related variations in insolation. With the help of a simple model, it is shown that frequency modulation of the approximate 100,000-year eccentricity cycles by the 413,000-year component accounts for the variable duration of the ice ages, the multiple-peak character of the time series spectra, and the notorious absence of significant spectral amplitude at the 413,000-year period. The observed spectra are consistent with the classic Milankovitch theories of insolation..

So if we consider the 3 references the provide in support of the “astronomical hypothesis”, the latest one says that a solution to the 100 kyr problem has not yet been found – of course this 1999 paper gives it their own best shot. Rial (1999) clearly doesn’t think that Imbrie et al 1992 / 1993 solved the problem.

Hays et al. (1976) presented strong evidence for astronomical theories of ice ages. They found the primary frequencies of astronomical forcing in the geological spectra of marine sediment cores. However, the dominant frequency in geological spectra is approximately 1/100 kyr-1, although this frequency component is negligible in the astronomical forcing. This is referred to as the ‘100 kyr problem.’

Ghil (1994) explained the appearance of the 100 kyr periodicity as a nonlinear resonance to the combination tone 1/109 kyr-1 between precessional frequencies 1/19 and 1/23 kyr-1. Contrary to the linear resonance, the nonlinear resonance can occur even if the forcing frequencies are far from the internal frequency of the response system.

Benzi et al. (1982) proposed stochastic resonance as a mechanism of the 100 kyr periodicity, where the response to small external forcing is amplified by the effect of noise.

Tziperman et al. (2006) proposed that the timing of deglaciations is set by the astronomical forcing via the phase- locking mechanism.. De Saedeleer et al. (2013) suggested generalized synchronization (GS) to describe the relation between the glacial cycles and the astronomical forcing. GS means that there is a functional relation between the climate state and the state of the astronomical forcing. They also showed that the functional relation may not be unique for a certain model.

According to the Milankovitch theory, the 100 kyr glacial cycle is caused by changes in insolation (solar heating) brought about by variations in the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit. There are serious difficulties with this theory: the insolation variations appear to be too small to drive the cycles and a strong 400 kyr modulation predicted by the theory is not present..

We suggest that a radical solution is necessary to solve these problems, and we propose that the 100 kyr glacial cycle is caused, not by eccentricity, but by a previously ignored parameter: the orbital inclination, the tilt of the Earth’s orbital plane..

“Still a mystery”, with the new solution of a member of the Theory C Family.

The main variations of ice volume of the last million years can be explained from orbital parameters by assuming climate oscillates between two states: glaciations and deglaciations (Parrenin and Paillard, 2003; Imbrie et al., 2011) (or terminations). An additional combination of ice volume and orbital parameters seems to form the trigger of a deglaciation, while only orbital parameters seem to play a role in the triggering of glaciations. Here we present an optimized conceptual model which realistically reproduce ice volume variations during the past million years and in partic- ular the timing of the 11 canonical terminations. We show that our model looses sensitivity to initial conditions only after ∼ 200 kyr at maximum: the ice volume observations form a strong attractor. Both obliquity and precession seem necessary to reproduce all 11 terminations and both seem to play approximately the same role.

Note that eccentricity variations are not cited as the cause.

The support for orbital parameters explaining the ice age glaciation/deglaciation are two papers. First, Parrenin & Paillard: Amplitude and phase of glacial cycles from a conceptual model (2003):

Although we find astronomical frequencies in almost all paleoclimatic records [1,2], it is clear that the climatic system does not respond linearly to insolation variations [3]. The first well-known paradox of the astronomical theory of climate is the ‘100 kyr problem’: the largest variations over the past million years occurred approximately every 100 kyr, but the amplitude of the insolation signal at this frequency is not significant. Although this problem remains puzzling in many respects, multiple equilibria and thresholds in the climate system seem to be key notions to explain this paradoxical frequency.

Their solution:

To explain these paradoxical amplitude and phase modulations, we suggest here that deglaciations started when a combination of insolation and ice volume was large enough. To illustrate this new idea, we present a simple conceptual model that simulates the sea level curve of the past million years with very realistic amplitude modulations, and with good phase modulations.

We present a new, phase-space model of Pleistocene ice volume that generates 100-kyr cycles in the Late Pleistocene as a response to obliquity and precession forcing. Like Parrenin and Paillard, (2003), we use a threshold for glacial terminations. However, ours is a phase-space threshold: a function of ice volume and its rate of change. Our model the ﬁrst to produce an orbitally driven increase in 100-kyr power during the mid-Pleistocene transition without any change in model parameters.

Theory C Family – two (relatively) new papers (2003 & 2011) with similar theories are presented as support of the astronomical theory causing the ice ages. Note that the theory in Imbrie et al 2013 is not the 100 kyr eccentricity variation proposed by Hays, Imbrie and Shackleton 1976.

——

Coherence resonance and ice ages, Jon D. Pelletier, JGR (2003)

The processes and feedbacks responsible for the 100-kyr cycle of Late Pleistocene global climate change are still being debated. This paper presents a numerical model that integrates (1) long-wavelength outgoing radiation, (2) the ice-albedo feedback, and (3) lithospheric deflection within the simple conceptual framework of coherence resonance. Coherence resonance is a dynamical process that results in the amplification of internally generated variability at particular periods in a system with bistability and delay feedback..

..The 100-kyr cycle is a free oscillation in the model, present even in the absence of external forcing.

“Still a mystery” – with the new solution that is not astronomical forcing.

All serious students of Earth’s climate history have heard of the ‘‘100 kyr problem’’ of Milankovitch orbital theory, namely the lack of an obvious explanation of the dominant 100 kyr periodicity in climate records of the last 800,000 years.

“Still a mystery” – except that Raymo thinks she has found the solution (see earlier)

Global ice volume proxy records obtained from deep-sea sediment cores, when analyzed in this way produce a narrow peak corresponding to a period of ~100 kyr that dominates the low frequency part of the spectrum. This contrasts with the spectrum of orbital eccentricity variation, often assumed to be the main candidate to pace the glaciations [Hays et al 1980], which shows two distinct peaks near 100 kyr and substantial power near the 413 kyr period.

Then their solution:

Milankovitch theory seeks to explain the Quaternary glaciations via changes in seasonal insolation caused by periodic changes in the Earth’s obliquity, orbital precession and eccentricity. However, recent high-resolution spectral analysis of d18O proxy climate records have cast doubt on the theory.. Here we show that the spectral signature of d18O records are entirely consistent with Milankovitch mechanisms in which deglaciations are triggered every fourth or fifth precessional cycle. Such mechanisms may involve the buildup of excess ice due to low summertime insolation at the previous precessional high.

So they don’t accept Theory B. They don’t claim the theory has been previously solved and they introduce a Theory C Family.

The Milankovitch hypothesis is widely held to be one of the cornerstones of climate science. Surprisingly, the hypothesis remains not clearly defined despite an extensive body of research on the link between global ice volume and insolation changes arising from variations in the Earth’s orbit.

And despite his interesting efforts at solving the problem he states towards the end of his paper:

The Milankovitch hypothesis as formulated here does not explain the large rapid deglaciations that occurred at the end of some of the ice age cycles.

Was it still a mystery or just not well defined. And from his new work, I’m not sure whether that means he thinks he has solved the reason for some ice age terminations, or that terminations are still a mystery.

It is generally accepted that this 100-ky cycle represents a major component of the record of changes in total Northern Hemisphere ice volume (3). It is difficult to explain this predominant cycle in terms of orbital eccentricity because “the 100,000-year radiation cycle (arising from eccentricity variations) is much too small in amplitude and too late in phase to produce the corresponding climatic cycle by direct forcing”

So the Hays, Imbrie & Shackleton 1976 Theory B is not correct.

He does state:

Hence, the 100,000-year cycle does not arise from ice sheet dynamics; instead, it is probably the response of the global carbon cycle that generates the eccentricity signal by causing changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.

Note that this is in opposition to the papers by Imbrie et al (2011) and Parrenin & Paillard (2003) that were cited by Parrenin & Paillard (2012) in support of the astronomical theory of the ice ages.

Hays et al. [1976] established that Milankovitch forcing (i.e., variations in orbital parameters and their effect on the insolation at the top of the atmosphere) plays a role in glacial cycle dynamics. However, precisely what that role is, and what is meant by ‘‘Milankovitch theories’’ remains unclear despite decades of work on the subject [e.g., Wunsch, 2004; Rial and Anaclerio, 2000]. Current views vary from the inference that Milankovitch variations in insolation drives the glacial cycle (i.e., the cycles would not exist without Milankovitch variations), to the Milankovitch forcing causing only weak climate perturbations superimposed on the glacial cycles. A further possibility is that the primary influence of the Milankovitch forcing is to set the frequency and phase of the cycles (e.g., controlling the timing of glacial terminations or of glacial inceptions). In the latter case, glacial cycles would exist even in the absence of the insolation changes, but with different timing.

“Still a mystery” – but now solved with a Theory C Family (in their paper).

The so-called Milankovitch hypothesis, that much of inferred past climate change is a response to near- periodic variations in the earth’s position and orientation relative to the sun, has attracted a great deal of attention. Numerous textbooks (e.g., Bradley, 1999; Wilson et al., 2000; Ruddiman, 2001) of varying levels and sophistication all tell the reader that the insolation changes are a major element controlling climate on time scales beyond about 10,000 years.

A recent paper begins ‘‘It is widely accepted that climate variability on timescales of 10 kyrs to 10 kyrs is driven primarily by orbital, or so-called Milankovitch, forcing.’’ (McDermott et al., 2001). To a large extent, embrace of the Milankovitch hypothesis can be traced to the pioneering work of Hays et al. (1976), who showed, convincingly, that the expected astronomical periods were visible in deep-sea core records..

..The long-standing question of how the slight Milankovitch forcing could possibly force such an enormous glacial–interglacial change is then answered by concluding that it does not do so.

“Still a mystery” – Wunsch does not accept Theory B and in this year didn’t accept Theory C Family (later co-authors a Theory C Family paper with Huybers). I cited this before in Part Six – “Hypotheses Abound”.

Climate variations of the last 3 million years are characterized by glacial-interglacial cycles which are generally believed to be driven by astronomically induced insolation changes.

No citation for the claim. Of course I agree that it is “generally believed”. Is this theory B? Or theory C? Or not sure?

——

Summary of the Papers

Out of about 300 papers checked, I found 34 papers (I might have missed a few) with a statement on the major cause of the ice ages separate from what they attempted to prove in their paper. These 34 papers were reviewed, with a further handful of cited papers examined to see what support they offered for the claim of the paper in question.

In respect of “What has been demonstrated up until our paper” – I count:

19 “still a mystery”

9 propose theory B

6 supporting theory C

I have question marks over my own classification of about 10 of these because they lack clarity on what they believe is the situation to date.

Of course, from the point of view of the papers reviewed each believes they have some solution for the mystery. That’s not primarily what I was interested in.

I wanted to see what all papers accept as the story so far, and what evidence they bring for this belief.

I found only one paper claiming theory B that attempted to produce any significant evidence in support.

Conclusion

Hays, Imbrie & Shackleton (1976) did not prove Theory B. They suggested it. Invoking “probably non-linearity” does not constitute proof for an apparent frequency correlation. Specifically, half an apparent frequency correlation – given that eccentricity has a 413 kyr component as well as a 100 kyr component.

Some physical mechanism is necessary. Of course, I’m certain Hays, Imbrie & Shackleton understood this (I’ve read many of their later papers).

Of the papers we reviewed, over half indicate that the solution is still a mystery. That is fine. I agree it is a mystery.

Some papers indicate that the theory is widely believed but not necessarily that they do. That’s probably fine. Although it is confusing for non-specialist readers of their paper.

Some papers cite Hays et al 1976 as support for theory B. This is amazing.

Some papers claim “astronomical forcing” and in support cite Hays et al 1976 plus a paper with a different theory from the Theory C Family. This is also amazing.

Some papers cite support for Theory C Family – an astronomical theory to explain the ice ages with a different theory than Hays et al 1976. Sometimes their cited papers align. However, between papers that accept something in the Theory C Family there is no consensus on which version of Theory C Family, and obviously therefore, on the papers which support it.

How can papers cite Hays et al for support of the astronomical theory of ice age inception/termination?

It is required to put forward citations for just about every claim in a paper even if the entire world has known it from childhood. It seems to be a journal convention/requirement:

The sun rises each day [see Kepler 1596; Newton 1687, Plato 370 BC]

…

Really? Newton didn’t actually prove it in his paper? Oh, you know what, I just had a quick look at the last few papers in my field and copied their citations so I could get on with putting forward my theory. Come on, we all know the sun rises every day, look out the window (unless you live in England). Anyway, so glad you called, let me explain my new theory, it solves all those other problems, I’ve really got something here..

Well, that might be part of the answer. It isn’t excusable, but introductions don’t have the focus they should have.

Why the Belief in Theory B?

This part I can’t answer. Lots of people have put forward theories, none is generally accepted. The reason for the ice age terminations is unknown. Or known by a few people and not yet accepted by the climate science community.

Is it ok to accept something that everyone else seems to believe even though they all actually have a different theory. Is it ok to accept something as proven that is not really proven because it is from a famous paper with 2500 citations?

Finally, the fact that most papers have some vague words at the start about the “orbital” or “astronomical” theory for the ice ages doesn’t mean that this theory has any support. Being scientific, being skeptical, means asking for evidence and definitely not accepting an idea just because “everyone else” appears to accept it.

I am sure people will take issue with me. In another blog I was told that scientists were just “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s” and none of this was seriously in doubt. Apparently, I was following creationist tactics of selective and out-of-context quoting..

Well, I will be delighted and no doubt entertained to read these comments, but don’t forget to provide evidence for the astronomical theory of the ice ages.

Twelve – GCM V – Ice Age Termination – very recent work from He et al 2013, using a high resolution GCM (CCSM3) to analyze the end of the last ice age and the complex link between Antarctic and Greenland

Thirteen – Terminator II – looking at the date of Termination II, the end of the penultimate ice age – and implications for the cause of Termination II

Fourteen – Concepts & HD Data – getting a conceptual feel for the impacts of obliquity and precession, and some ice age datasets in high resolution

Notes

Note 1: The temperature fluctuations measured in Antarctica are a lot smaller than Greenland but still significant and still present for similar periods. There are also some technical challenges with calculating the temperature change in Antarctica (the relationship between d18O and local temperature) that have been better resolved in Greenland.